Guinea hens

They suck. Crap everywhere, tear up stuff and make a terrible racket all day long. If you have any stray dogs, cats, or yotes around-they won’t make it.

I had them for maybe 10 years.I would get about 15-16 chicks and raise them,they would last about 3 years before the coyotes and bobcats would get them all.Then I would get a new batch.
They were really good at eating all kinds of bugs,small snakes they would kill.Big snakes they would surround and holler.

Big problem was all the hollering they would do.About 3-4 months old they would find their voice and would holler all day long.That would go on for a few months,after that didn’t hear much out of them unless they were alarmed about something.

About an hour before dark they would fly up in a tree in my backyard,they would holler for a good hour until it got dark.
That’s why I haven’t gotten anymore,the hollering got on my nerves after awhile.

Otherwise I enjoyed them,fun to watch them running around,they’re comical birds.
1 group I had learned to follow my tractor around when I was bushhogging and would chase down the grasshoppers I stirred up.Cattle egrets would try to follow and the guineas would chase them off.

You need a large piece of property. My neighbors have some. They also have 2 Pyrenees. Coyotes aren’t as big of a problem as cars. The dumbasses get run over constantly on a not very busy road.

My neighbor across the road and I bought twenty, he went to somewhere around Breaux Bridge I think and got them for five bucks each, very young birds. We loved them, they roamed over a large area, going out of hearing and coming back into hearing from a completely different direction, like a pack of hounds.
They even laid eggs in the pasture and hatched some babies, but they kept crossing the road and eventually they all perished. The school bus got most of them. We even thought about getting a sign made up saying Caution - Guinea Crossing, but it we waited too long.
If I knew where he got them I would love to have some more.

My father was a small time (recreational farmer). We had everything quail to horses and cows. Pigs and guineas were some where in there too.

I lived about 150 yards from him. I also had a free range Pitbull. I know the common thoughts about Pitbulls so spare me the dressing down. She was the sweetest dog.

But a dog is still a dog.

He turned loose about 10 free range guineas.... it took Loki about a day and a half to kill every one of them. If they had not ran when she approached they might still be alive. Play to a dog is death to a guinea.

So the real question is do you have loose dogs running around the place

I have mine trained like a chicken to go back in the coop at night with my automatic door. I like the noise. Feed the chicks game bird starter when you first get them. They need the higher protein.